Rolling Y-bearings, which usually refer to insert bearings, are based on sealed rigid ball bearings, but have a convex outer ring and, in most cases, an overhanging inner ring with a specific blocking device to enable quick and easy assembly on the shaft.
Rolling Y-bearings can be individual bearings or full bearings. Full Y-bearings comprise a bearing housing, a rolling bearing and a joint that are preassembled and greased in the factory. Such ready-to-assemble bearings may admit a moderate initial alignment fault, but do not permit axial movement of the shaft.
Full Y-bearings and rolling Y-bearings are a simple, efficient solution offering numerous advantages.
Rolling Y-bearings are often used in the domain of agricultural applications. Nowadays, farmers are facing increasing pressure to remain productive while containing costs and reducing environmental impact. Defective rolling bearings often prevent this objective from being achieved. Contamination by pollutants or lubricant leaks caused by defective joints often cause the premature failure of rolling bearings for shafts used in agricultural applications, causing machines to break down.
In particular in the domain of agricultural applications, it is important to guarantee the usability of machines at harvest time, even if the machine has not been used for a long time. It is therefore essential to avoid elements liable to become friable.
Document WO 2010/064088 describes a rolling-contact bearing comprising an inner ring, an outer ring with an outer surface in the form of a section of a sphere, rolling bodies between the inner ring and the outer ring, an encoder washer constrained to rotate with the inner ring, a sensor being designed to detect a rotation of the encoder washer, a support member having an inner surface in the form of a section of a sphere, the inner surface being designed to be in sliding contact with the outer surface of the outer ring, the support member being designed to hold the sensor, in relation to the encoder washer, in a position in which the sensor can detect a rotation of the encoder washer.
The sensor is powered and designed to communicate via a wire with an external control or monitoring unit mounted on the bearing or on a casing of the machine in which the bearing is fitted. Separating the sensor from the control unit makes it possible to adapt the sensor system to the dimensions of the rolling bearing very easily, and to assemble the control unit in a suitable position by simply adapting the support member and the length of the wire.
However, this solution is not entirely satisfactory since the wire is liable to get damaged unless costly means are used to protect same.